What’s Up With the House Pubs?

On two separate key issues, Bush Admin proposals have been shot down not by recalcitrant Democrats but by Republican moderates. In the first, a Bush proposal to waive weapons licensing rules for allies Britain and Australia has been shot down as too dangerous.

WASHINGTON, June 9 – House Republican leaders are blocking a Bush administration plan to waive licensing rules so Britain and Australia, two of America’s closest allies in the fight against terrorism, can buy certain military items from the United States.In a sharply worded report released last month, the House International Relations Committee said the administration’s effort to relax controls on the sale of “low sensitivity” military items would play into the hands of terrorists seeking to acquire vital American technology.

Oops. A Republican administration is being accused of helping terrorists by members of their own party? What happened to the infamous GOP discipline? Is Rush attacking Republicans Henry Hyde and Duncan Hunter as anti-American Saddam-lovers? Has Ann Coulter called them traitors yet? But if you think that’s weird, another bunch nixed bunker-busters.

WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee told the Bush administration Wednesday to rethink some of its plans for nuclear weapons, including development of a “bunker buster” warhead.The panel refused to provide money for development of a nuclear bunker buster, a weapon that can destroy a deeply buried target. It also denied funding for research into the feasibility of a low-yield “mini-nuke” warhead and for work on a new plant to produce plutonium triggers for the warheads.

The programs, while relatively small in terms of funding during the fiscal year beginning in October, have been a priority of the National Nuclear Security Administration, the Energy Department agency responsible for the nation’s nuclear stockpile.

“We put the brakes on a number of new nuclear weapons initiatives,” said Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio), the subcommittee chairman.